The 2013-2014 academic year was a busy year for the University of California, Riverside chapter! For Make A Difference Day in the fall, the chapter collaborated with another student organization on campus to host a community cleanup at a local park. Members spent the day picking up trash on the playground and surrounding areas of the park, cleaning out the trash cans and replacing the trash bags. This event served as a wonderful opportunity to meet new people and help the community. The chapter also held an Adopt A Classroom event each month. Golden Key members would choose a classroom monthly at Bryant Elementary School and read to the students.

Global Youth Service Day

This is one of the chapter’s favorite events and continues to be a successful one. For Global Youth Service Day in the spring, chapter members went to the campus’ botanical gardens to help clean up the 40 acre area. Home to more than 3,500 species of plants and trails that extend up to four miles long, the gardens are difficult to maintain and any help is invaluable.

Each semester the University of California, Riverside chapter holds three general meetings in which members, officers and advisors gather to discuss upcoming chapter events. These meetings are unique, though, in that they also make functions out of them. For instance, to kick off the fall semester, the chapter turned their first general meeting into forum to discuss undergraduate research opportunities and how to build lasting relationships with professors. This forum was open to all students on campus, and it served as a wonderful opportunity to meet prospective members on campus. The second general meetings for each semester usually take place just prior to midterm examinations, so the chapter takes this opportunity to turn the general meetings into stress busters. In the spring, they collaborated with Active Minds to have a speaker come talk to the chapter about implementing healthy sleep cycles, napping and tips/facts regarding sleep in our daily lives. The chapter also uses one general meeting each semester to write heartwarming letters to soldiers who serve our country to show appreciation for all that they do.

Congratulations to the University of California, Riverside chapter for being named a 2013-2014 Key Chapter!